Pickup owner shoots suspect

A man was hospitalized and subsequently arrested on a motor vehicle burglary charge Wednesday after police said the vehicle’s owner shot the suspected burglar during a confrontation, Amarillo Police Department Cpl. Jerry Neufeld said.

About 4:20 a.m., police responded to an auto burglary call in the 1400 block of Knight Street, where police were told a resident was holding at gunpoint another man who broke into the resident’s vehicle, police said.

Callers then advised police shots had been fired and the burglar was running in an unknown direction, authorities said.

Police secured the area and talked to a resident who said he heard noises outside near his pickup. The man said he saw the pickup’s interior light was on when he looked outside the window from his house, authorities said.

The man walked outside with his pistol and saw Terry Lee Richardson, 31, rummaging through the cab of his pickup, police said.

The man confronted Richardson, grabbing his hoodie and yelling for his son to call police, and Richardson began to fight with the man, authorities said.

Richardson grabbed the man’s gun before the man shot Richardson, who then fled, police said.

While police were investigating the incident in the neighborhood, dispatchers received a call from the 2400 block of Echo Street, where a caller reported Richardson was trying to enter a house, claiming he had been shot and needed medical attention, authorities said.

Police and paramedics responded to the call, and Richardson was transported by ambulance to a local hospital with minor injuries.

He later was released and booked into the Potter County jail on a burglary of a motor vehicle charge.